The Netherlands – Road Safety Labels for Schools
In order to encourage and support schools, nine provinces in the Netherlands have implemented a programme that rewards primary schools with a ‘road safety label’ when they implement road safety education as well as traffic safety measures in and around the school.
‘SCHOOL op SEEF’ is the programme in South Holland. Schools are expected to:
- Give theoretical and practical lessons to all pupils every year;
- Have structurally incorporated traffic safety education and traffic safety itself in the school’s policy;
- Communicate extensively with parents/caretakers about all activities as well as their role as educator;
- Communicate extensively with the municipality regarding traffic problems around the school;
- Have a sound organisational structure in place, with clear tasks and responsibilities for the school management, a traffic contact person, the teachers, and parent-helpers.
‘SCHOOL op SEEF’ provides educational materials as well as tools for schools to plan and implement traffic safety measures. It emphasises the cooperation between, and shared responsibility of, the school, municipality and parents.
‘TotallyTraffic’ is a similar programme for secondary education in South Holland, and is used in other regions of the Netherlands as well.
More Information
Regionaal Ondersteuningsbureau Verkeersveiligheid Zuid-Holland (n.d.), School op Seef.
Regionaal Ondersteuningsbureau Verkeersveiligheid Zuid-Holland (n.d.), TotallyTraffic.
Norway – Children’s Traffic Club
The Children’s Traffic Club, an initiative of the Norwegian Council for Road Safety (NCRS; Trygg Trafikk) focuses on day-care centres, because if good habits are established when the children are still small, it is likely that they themselves will become responsible road-users. Many day-care centres and families with small children are engaged in the topic of traffic safety, but not all.
The Children’s Traffic Club aims to ensure that day-care centres include traffic in a natural way during the implementation of activities scheduled throughout the year, and that traffic is a topic in the cooperation with parents. The NCRS regards the day-care centre as a public arena where they meet everyone and thereby can ensure a greater provision of training on an equal basis.
The Children’s Traffic Club for day-care centres started in 2016, and about 50% of all day-care centres in Norway had become a member by 2019.
More Information
Denmark – Majority of Danish Schools have a Traffic Policy
In its National Action Plan, the Danish Road Safety Commission recommends that all schools teaching children and youngsters aged 5-15 years old (Danish primary schools) develop a traffic policy, and that they should be supported by municipalities. In order to facilitate this recommendation, the Danish Road Safety Council (Sikker Trafik) provides information on how to create a traffic policy on their website.
This includes the creation of a working group to investigate what the school is already doing, what is working well and not so well, and what challenges the traffic policy needs to address. A template and examples are also provided on the website. A majority of Danish schools have a traffic policy and surveys show that schools with traffic policies have more children that travel to school by themselves.
All Danish municipalities are furthermore encouraged to put traffic safety education on the agenda of regular meetings between head teachers and the responsible administrative body at the municipalities. This allows municipalities to be informed whether traffic safety education is done at the schools and whether the schools fulfil the national goals for traffic education.
More Information
Danish Road Safety Commission (2021), 2021-2030.
(Originally referenced: Danish Road Safety Commission (2013), National Action Plan 2013-2020.)
Finland – Traffic Safety Plans as a Guide for Systematic Traffic Safety Education
To support systematic and long-term traffic safety education, a school-specific traffic safety plan is drawn up. To achieve the best results, the Finnish Road Safety Council (Liikenneturva) recommends schools pay attention to the following topics: a safe traffic environment that is evaluated on the basis of the capabilities and needs of the pupils, the use of safety equipment, traffic safety education, and influencing other road users, especially car drivers.
They furthermore recommend that school-specific traffic safety plans comprise four parts: the journey to school and the surrounding traffic environment, traffic safety education, role models, and collaboration and networking. The plan should be drawn up by teachers, students and their parents, and acts as a guide for systematic traffic safety education.
An example of a traffic safety plan developed in cooperation with the Finnish Road Safety Council can be found on the website linked here.
More Information
An example of a traffic safety plan developed in cooperation with the Finnish Road Safety Council can be found on the website linked here.
Bulgaria – Road Safety Committees Required at Schools and Kindergartens
Since 2016, a new Ordinance has been enacted that requires every school, kindergarten and youth centre for personal growth and development in the country to appoint its own Road Safety Committee. This Committee has to support the head teacher in:
- executing control over the quality of the road safety education in the institution;
- making sure road safety education is effective and addresses the specific risks in road traffic for children and youngsters attributable to the urban surroundings of the specific institution and their specific path home; and
- organising public initiatives aimed at raising awareness among their pupils and the public regarding the risks inherent to road traffic safety.
The committees have to develop road safety yearly plans, which include all measures and intervention areas and have to report to the pedagogical council annually about the initiatives and measures taken. The Ordinance furthermore requires educational institutions at the pre-primary, primary and secondary level to make the urban area surrounding their location more safe via several measures. Good results have been reported since the inception of the road safety committees.
More Information
The Ordinance was updated in 2023 and can be downloaded (in Bulgarian) from this link. The 2016 Ordinance originally referenced is available at this link.
Germany – Guidelines for Safe Routes to School
The German Federal Highway Institute BASt offers a guideline which includes best practice examples for the development of safe routes to school plans. The guideline is directed to parents as well as school managers and teachers, and contains useful advice related to the process of developing, implementing and evaluating safe routes.
More Information
Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) (2019), Schulwegpläne leichtgemacht – Der Leitfaden.
The best practice examples are not yet available on the mobile version of the website. Please visit the website on a tablet, desktop or laptop to see them.
The Netherlands – Road Safety Labels for Schools
In order to encourage and support schools, nine provinces in the Netherlands have implemented a programme that rewards primary schools with a ‘road safety label’ when they implement road safety education as well as traffic safety measures in and around the school.
‘SCHOOL op SEEF’ is the programme in South Holland. Schools are expected to:
- Give theoretical and practical lessons to all pupils every year;
- Have structurally incorporated traffic safety education and traffic safety itself in the school’s policy;
- Communicate extensively with parents/caretakers about all activities as well as their role as educator;
- Communicate extensively with the municipality regarding traffic problems around the school;
- Have a sound organisational structure in place, with clear tasks and responsibilities for the school management, a traffic contact person, the teachers, and parent-helpers.
‘SCHOOL op SEEF’ provides educational materials as well as tools for schools to plan and implement traffic safety measures. It emphasises the cooperation between, and shared responsibility of, the school, municipality and parents.
‘TotallyTraffic’ is a similar programme for secondary education in South Holland, and is used in other regions of the Netherlands as well.
More Information
Regionaal Ondersteuningsbureau Verkeersveiligheid Zuid-Holland (n.d.), School op Seef.
Regionaal Ondersteuningsbureau Verkeersveiligheid Zuid-Holland (n.d.), TotallyTraffic.
Norway – Children’s Traffic Club
The Children’s Traffic Club, an initiative of the Norwegian Council for Road Safety (NCRS; Trygg Trafikk) focuses on day-care centres, because if good habits are established when the children are still small, it is likely that they themselves will become responsible road-users. Many day-care centres and families with small children are engaged in the topic of traffic safety, but not all.
The Children’s Traffic Club aims to ensure that day-care centres include traffic in a natural way during the implementation of activities scheduled throughout the year, and that traffic is a topic in the cooperation with parents. The NCRS regards the day-care centre as a public arena where they meet everyone and thereby can ensure a greater provision of training on an equal basis.
The Children’s Traffic Club for day-care centres started in 2016, and about 50% of all day-care centres in Norway had become a member by 2019.